Sandy Hook Elementary Was Open, Part Six: The 2011-2012 Scrapbook

Obviously the claim that Sandy Hook Elementary School ceased all “Internet activity” between 2008 and “all of 2012” – all part of a larger theory that the school permanently closed its doors in 2008 – is nothing but pure fantasy; the net result of some shamefully incompetent research conducted by a couple of desperate space cadets who have chosen to spend their golden years chasing windmills (as well as harassing grieving families). In addition to the undeniable technical explanation provided in “Why The Most Compelling Evidence In Nobody Died At Sandy Hook Is A Total Bust”, there’s also actual demonstrable activity on Sandy Hook Elementary School’s website during that contested (though only by idiots) five year period. One noteworthy example of this is Sandy Hook’s “scrapbook” from the 2011-2012 school year: a series of sixteen online photo albums, all of which show plenty of busy students, faculty, and guests participating in a number of school activities. These photos – and there over 200 of them – are yet another superfluous nail in the coffin of con men like James Fetzer, Wolfgang Halbig, and their absurd charade.

If you’re interested in viewing the albums for yourself – and I would recommend you do, especially if you’ve ever given any level of thought to denier nonsense – you can do so here, courtesy of the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. I’m only going to highlight a handful of those photos, focusing my attention on those that I believe are the most significant and instrumental in corroborating the “official” (i.e. correct) story.

Note: This entry is (obviously) very picture heavy! You can click on any photo to view it full-sized in another tab.

The children of Sandy Hook celebrated the Chinese New Year on Monday, January 23rd, 2012. Here’s the sign that stood in the lobby that day:

This is not insignificant: “The Year of the Dragon” only comes once every twelve years, with the most recent taking place in – you guessed it – 2012. “But that doesn’t prove anything!” some mouth-breathing denier may hammer out with their little sausage fingers in between threatening phone calls to Gene Rosen. “Obviously they took those photos in 2008! They just swapped the sign out, held onto the pictures for four years, and then posted them on their website!” A ridiculous proposition of course, but consider who we’re dealing with here.

Thankfully it’s a bit more difficult to deny some of the other evidence included in these photos:

Here we can see one student is wearing a t-shirt from the 2011 (which I’ve circled in yellow) Marshwoods New Hampshire Youth Wrestling Classic, which was obviously not available in 2008. Also notice that the hallway is not cluttered, further refuting the absolutely preposterous claim that the school was used as storage, as alleged by “Dr. Eowyn” (aka Maria Hsia Chang) in Chapter Two of “Nobody Died At Sandy Hook”.

The date (again – January 23rd, 2012) can also be seen on the whiteboard in this photo:

Also included in this album is the following heartbreaking photo of 1st grade teacher and victim Victoria Soto, happily watching the parade from the doorway of her classroom, where she would ultimately lose her life:

The Newtown Bee also published a photo from the school’s Chinese New Year festivities to their Facebook page:

Like a number of other children in attendance that day, the boy on the left is wearing a New York Giants t-shirt. This isn’t the last we’ll see of them as the team were NFC East champions at the time this photo was taken and on their way to the Super Bowl.

This album provides yet another look at a very active school, full of children, their parents, school staff, and volunteers:

These nineteen photos are from the school’s “Family Fun Night”, which took place on October 21st, 2011, and is discussed in the October 6th, October 13th, and October 20th, 2011 editions of “The Sandy Hook Connection”. From the October 20th issue:

The FFF is Tomorrow Night

The Family Fun Fair is tomorrow! Calling all princesses, super heroes, witches, and goblins! Come in your costume to SHS on Friday, October 21, from 5-8 p.m. and enjoy a night of friends and fun. Don’t miss the spectacular haunted house, the fortune teller, and all sorts of games and crafts. In addition to pizza, we’ll be offering a hot dog cart, a pizza cart, and some witches’ brew at the baked goods table. With each purchase at the photo booth, you’ll receive a printed copy and a digital version sent to your email address. We are also having a 50/50 raffle! Please come and join in all the fun. This is a wonderful, exciting night for the entire family and a great fundraiser for SHS. We hope to see you there!

Taken in February of 2011, this album shows Sandy Hook’s 1st grade students throwing a parade to celebrate their first 100 days of school. From the Newtown Bee:

Newtown schools celebrated the arrival of the 100th day of school on Tuesday, February 15, with parades, counting games, and more.

At Sandy Hook School first grade students lined up at 9:20 am to march through the school with vests made out of paper bags. Each student’s vest was decorated with a differently with objects that add up to 100.

Shortly after the parade began, the students walked past collection boxes for this year’s 100th Day of School Food Drive, overseen by math/science specialist Kris Feda. Sandy Hook School Principal Dawn Hochsprung joined the students near the end of the line of marchers to parade through the school as classrooms of students watched.

Teacher and victim Victoria Soto can be seen proudly leading her class through the hallways, which are lined with holiday decorations:

These decorations differ quite a bit from what is seen in the crime scene photos (taken a year later in December of 2012), categorically proving that the school’s interior has not remained stagnant since 2008:

As you can plainly see, the snowmen between classrooms #3 and #5 in the photo from 2011 have been replaced by an “Olden Days vs. Now” display. Just below that, a number of unknown papers as well as a “Brains At Work” poster have been replaced by Post-it note height markers (shown in greater detail here). Across the hall, a board containing even more papers is now a “How much snow will we get?” display.

This album contains eight photos from that visit. Olessa herself posted three additional pictures (as well as the eight posted on Sandy Hook’s website) from this trip on her personal Facebook page on March 23rd, 2012:

Included in both albums (the school’s as well as Olessa’s) is the following photograph (I’ve used the version taken from Olessa’s Facebook page as it’s of much better quality):

Notice anything? Let’s take a look at one more photo:

Once again, James Fetzer is done in by a child’s t-shirt.

Although partially obscured by his copy of “Stuart Little”, it’s not too difficult to make out that the boy in the front is wearing a New York Giants Super Bowl XLVI tee, which I’ve again circled in yellow. The underdog Giants of course beat the Patriots 21-17 in that game, which took place on February 5th, 2012. Obviously this merchandise would not have been available in 2008 (or 2009 or 2010 or 2011)… unless of course whoever produced the shirt is capable of predicting the future, in which case they may want to reconsider their current line of work.

The school hosted students and parents on March 22nd, 2012 for a “Stuart Little” themed night of activities to celebrate the completion of their “One School One Read” event. This album includes a look at the night’s program, which of course includes the date:

Come and join in the fun of our school and family celebration of Stuart Little tonight, Thursday, March 22, at our One School, One Read SHS Family Night. Parking and space are limited, so we ask that families attend according to last name. If there is a conflict, please feel free to come to either session:

SHS students and staff welcomed some local celebrities as guest readers for our second week of Stuart Little. On Monday, Newtown Police Chief Mike Kehoe read to Mrs. Vollmer’s kindergartners. On Tuesday, Newtown’s First Selectman Pat Llodra read to Ms. Anderheggen’s 4th grade students and answered several questions about her personal reading and writing interests. On Wednesday, Newtown Police Youth and School Resource Officer Gladys Pisani read to Mrs. Kazlauskas’s 1st graders, who also enjoyed a special surprise from Officer Pisani; and Board of Education member Mr. Keith Alexander read to Mrs. Mackenzie’s 2nd grade students. On Thursday, Board of Education Vice-Chairperson Mrs. Laura Roche read to Mrs. Usher’s 4th grade class. We are grateful to our guest readers who were so willing to come in and share their reading talents with our students. The students loved them all!Tony Salvatore — Assistant Principal

One photo shows children being read to in a classroom, but also gives us a glimpse outside at the school’s busy playground:

Beginning in January of 2012, “Project Eagle” began raising funds to purchase a new tank for Sandy Hook’s school pet: a red eared slider turtle named Shelly. The group’s fundraising efforts are outlined in the January 5th, 2012 edition of “The Sandy Hook Connection” (created on January 4th, 2012):

Shelly Needs a New Home For The New Year!

Shelly has outgrown her tank! Project Eagle needs your help to raise the funds to place her in a new home for the new year. For every dollar donated to the Shelly Fund, each donor will have a turtle with his/her name on it placed in a “tank” on the wall in the cafeteria and receive one raffle ticket for a chance to win one of multiple fun prizes. Please complete the information below and submit along with your donation today. The more dollars we collect toward our goal, the quicker we can move Shelly to her new home. And the more you donate the more chances you have to win a fun prize! Raffle prize winners will be announced on our next Spirit Day on February 1. Completed donation forms can be dropped off before school in the SHS lobby to Shelly Fund representatives (look for the raffle box) or returned to the main office in an envelope marked Shelly Fund through January 31.

This album documents Shelly being moved from the lobby…

…to her new home just outside of the school’s library:

This album contains a couple of pictures from the lobby area can be compared to those from the crime scene photos:

And the area just outside of the door to the cafetorium:

The differences between the photos – taken less than a year apart from one another – are obvious. James Fetzer expects you to believe that all of these changes were made in an abandoned school and documented by an on-going school newsletter. All while they neglected to update their website… or something.

Well-known children’s author Patricia Polacco visited Sandy Hook on September 15th, 2011 to speak with and read to all of the school’s students.

Of course this is pure speculation, but these appear to be very young children that Patricia is speaking to in this particular photo – probably no more than Kindergarten age, which is precisely how old the child victims of Adam Lanza would have been back in 2011 – and it looks as if that is Catherine Hubbard (based on the distinctive hair) on the right, in the light purple shirt.

Another photo from the same album includes a much closer view of this girl. And while it is still only the back of her head, if you were to compare it to other photos of Catherine taken around this time, it’s difficult to argue that it’s anyone else:

I wonder if James Fetzer believes that Patricia Polacco A) is complicit in this (wholly imaginary) hoax, widening that circle of co-conspirators even further, or B) was somehow lured – along with a number of children – into an empty and unused school to read to juvenile “actors”, as those are the only scenarios compatible with his theory.

This album features school principal and victim Dawn Hochsprung as well as assistant principal Anthony Salvatore going from room-to-room while dressed as an astronaut and alien in order to promote reading. In this photo, the date written on the planner behind Mrs. Hochsprung reads Monday, November 21st, 2011:

This event is corroborated by the December 1st, 2011 edition of “The Sandy Hook Connection” (created on December 1st, 2011):

Space Visitors Tour SHS

Two space visitors visited every classroom last week in search of readers who could help NASA Astronaut Commander I.M. Bookman find the home of A. Li-En. Upon the students’ first sighting of A. Li-En during morning arrival, NASA sent Cmdr. Bookman immediately to Sandy Hook. It seems that A. Li-en was hiding in the book fair book bins nibbling on books!

Every class shared their reading expertise that helped A. Li-En learn how to open a book, to understand that reading is for learning about people, places, and things and to have fun! Most of all, they shared that books are not to be eaten! At the end, A. Li-En was able to show everyone in the space book that Mars was home.

Many students also experienced the “shape-shifting” ability of A. Li-En to make the visitors look very similar to Mrs. Hochsprung and Dr. Salvatore so making friends would be easier. Who knows when the next visitors will appear at Sandy Hook??

Sandy Hook School’s 2011 Veterans Day breakfast – an annual tradition – is probably the most well-documented event in the school’s photo album. Firstly, there’s this mention in the November 10th, 2011 edition of “The Sandy Hook Connection” (created on November 9th, 2011):

Wear Red, White and Blue for Veterans Day

Show your support of our veterans by wearing red, white and blue tomorrow, Friday, November 11 in celebration of Veterans Day. If your child is hosting a veteran, please remember to arrive by 8 a.m., and please bring breakfast contributions if you signed up to do so! If you have any questions, please contact Beth Hegarty at hegartyb@yahoo.com. Thank you!

As far as photographic evidence goes, in addition to the seventeen photos available here…

As well as the following tragic photo showing victim Jesse Lewis standing in the school’s lobby with his grandfather (and notice that the display behind them has changed yet again):

In the glass display case behind Jesse and his grandfather is the Highlights 2012 “Puzzles & Games” wall calendar:

Much like the chorus rehearsal and Patricia Polacco photos we looked at a bit earlier, we can use the tools available on The Newtown Bee’s site to view the Exif information embedded in these photos and confirm that every last one of them was created on November 11th, 2011.

With that in mind, it would certainly be extremely difficult (I’d say impossible) for anyone – even someone as batshit as James Fetzer or Wolfgang Halbig – to make the claim that these are not legitimate photographs taken inside of Sandy Hook Elementary School on November 11th, 2011. So I’m forced to once again wonder if James Fetzer believes that these veterans are fraudulent (although the obituary of Antony Barbagallo, who was photographed in attendance with his grandson, Max, confirms that he is who the paper says he is and that he did in fact serve in World War II), complicit (a bold accusation to level against a room full of vets), or never considered it odd that they were attending a breakfast in their honor at a school that had been sitting empty for four whole years.

And I haven’t even scratched the surface as to what’s available on The Newtown Bee’s website. Between Sandy Hook’s own photo album, The Newtown Bee, and various photos available on social media, there are literally hundreds of photographs taken in and around the school between 2008-2012.

http://maps.newtown-ct.gov/ags_map/ great work again , I’m sending a link from the newtown assessors office , , if you click on the BASE MAPS you can see the sat, photos of the school from 2003, 2007, and 2012 , , where the roof is in the same condition as in the aerial view from the day of the shooting , and the majority of the cars are facing the same direction in 2007 ,as the day of the shooting

Good stuff. I’ve noticed in some of the other photographs that feature the parking lot, the cars are almost always parked in the same direction. It makes sense, or at least it should make sense to everyone who isn’t a lunatic.

further info with the BASE MAPS ,if you click on the school you can then click on the BIRDS EYE VIEW from 2010,, there are a few differences in the outside of the school . 1 is that the no parking lane in front of the school was painted with yellow stripes,, 2, the 4 square and basketball court was installed, 3 the reading area in DAWN HOCHSPRUNGS twitter photo ( center of school ) was redone with pavers , 4, shed and container was put in place

Sharon, this particular piece of stupidity has been debunked time and time (and time) again. I personally covered it at length here. Please at least perform a cursory search of the site for this stuff before you continue embarrassing yourself.

Shill, stupid is a strong word. And Sharon is not stupid for mentioning the FACT that at least one section of an official FBI’s website lists 0 murders having taken place in Newtown in the entire year 2012, here:

Mike, the UCR has been addressed many, many times already. Here and elsewhere. If you would have bothered to click on the “Data Declaration” (and why would you when you can simply remain ignorant?), then you would have seen the following, listed under “General comment”:

This table provides the volume of violent crime (murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) and property crime (burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft) as reported by city and town law enforcement agencies (listed alphabetically by state) that contributed data to the UCR Program. (Note: Arson is not included in the property crime total in this table; however, if complete arson data were provided, they will appear in the arson column.)

This table does not list the number of violent crimes that have taken place in those cities. That is a fact. You are either misunderstanding or intentionally misrepresenting the data. Again, what you are looking at is the volume of violent crime “as reported by city and town law enforcement”. As reported by. And since the shooting was handled by Connecticut state police rather than Newtown PD, the former (that means the first thing I said!) submitted the information to the FBI.

the “address” on YOUR scrapbook link says Sandy hook Elementary 2011-2012…seems someone forgot to change the address in the bottom right header corner while changing the “name of the school” in the top !!!..and ooops NOT same “multi-purpose room ” as Sandy Hook”.. ( see: 4th grade chorus rehearsal photos)

Parts 1-3 are terrible points, because if they truly were trying to “stage” it, those would all be easy to plant. The rest however is very compelling. I still believe Sandy Hook is clearly a hoax. But at least I’m like 80% it wasn’t closed since 2008.

As I believe I’ve stated elsewhere – likely in a reply to a comment much like yours – the point is not to consider each entry in this series independently. Because if someone really sold on this “hoax” nonsense only looks at part two for example, then they could (and likely will, as demonstrated here) say, “Well, this is just one book! Clearly someone knew that conspiracy theorists would make the claim that the school closed in 2008, found a recently published children’s book, and planted it there in that bin, in the school’s hallway, so that it would be barely visible in two (out of thousands of) crime scene photos!” And while that book, in my opinion, is still stronger than anything put forth by deniers showing that the school was closed, someone such as yourself will not find it particularly convincing, at least not on its own. That’s why this stuff really needs to be taken as a whole and weighed against the spectacularly weak evidence cited by deniers; the same stuff that they’ve been repeating for four years now, all of which I believe has been thoroughly debunked here. And I challenge any reasonable, truly open-minded person to take all thirteen parts of this series (if not the entirety of this site) and stack it up against the best the deniers have to offer: the technologically ignorant and wholly incorrect claims regarding the Wayback Machine, the baseless (and again incorrect) claims regarding an imaginary “asbestos infestation”, etc. Stack it up, approach it from a logical, scientific perspective, and be honest with yourself when you ask which evidence is stronger.

Wow…The footnote on that link even STATES that it included the 26 who died at Sandy Hook. You probably think 9/11 was faked too. I swear….no hope for the insanity of these fucking hoaxers…(pardon my language everyone else)

A recurring subject in the hoaxers’ claims is that what has been publicly shown of the slain children are mostly older images, when young, of still-existing people — who are not necessarily even connected with Sandy Hook Elementary.

This notion (at least) could easily be put to rest with a certified copy of the school’s 2011-2012 yearbook (school year lapsed between Sep 2011 – May 2012), showing pictures of the affected children when they were alive and well and definitely being pupils at SHE, about a year prior to Dec 14th, 2012.

I’ve looked for this yearbook extensively, to no avail. I wonder if it exists…

A recurring subject in the hoaxers’ claims is that what has been publicly shown of the slain children are mostly older images, when young, of still-existing people — who are not necessarily even connected with Sandy Hook Elementary.

And that’s a very stupid claim, one they’ve provided zero evidence for, as per usual.

This notion (at least) could easily be put to rest with a certified copy of the school’s 2011-2012 yearbook (school year lapsed between Sep 2011 – May 2012), showing pictures of the affected children when they were alive and well and definitely being pupils at SHE, about a year prior to Dec 14th, 2012.

Let’s cut the shit: there is nothing that will put this insanity to rest. There’s already a mountain of evidence out there showing that these children existed, that the school was open, and that twenty-six people were murdered there. And yet here we are, still having this absurd conversation. After Lenny Pozner was told that all he needed to do was release a death certificate for Noah, that’s exactly what he did. And did these nutjobs apologize and then crawl back under their rocks? No, of course not. Instead, Lenny was told that it was a “fake” (despite the fact that anyone can order their own copy) and they then intensified their attacks.

As for the yearbook itself, where do you expect to obtain one? What right do you believe you have to it? These yearbooks – which would have been produced in limited quantities, as all yearbooks are – would only be in the hands of the students, as well as their parents. What makes you think that any of these people would make such an item available to ghouls like you? People who make up a very small (yet unfortunately very vocal) minority. Get real. Even those that may have thought about it likely learned their lesson from Lenny Pozner and his misguided attempts to satiate the conspiracy theorists.

See my recent reply on Jan 27 , 2018 . Maybe it will help you find a copy from the company that had the contract for the yearbook . I know for sure high school and college yearbooks are always available in case one has misplaced theirs and wants a new copy .

I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that the parents and students in possession of these yearbooks are not going to sell them off to some mentally ill creep so that him and his Internet cult can learn the names of and then stalk hundreds of innocent children. Just a guess though!

You’re absolutely correct. When they haven’t seen evidence, it doesn’t exist. But when they finally do, it’s fake. Their delusions become bulletproof. Now I’m certainly not under the impression that I will ever change the minds of people that ill, but I can (and have) been able to talk some sense into the outliers, or the people who have maybe heard a couple of things and are just beginning to look into it. There are a million fraudulent hoax websites out there, because it’s easy to just blurt out nonsense without backing any of it up, so my real hope is to balance out the signal-to-noise ratio a bit.

Look at the photos the kids first 100 days, then the one you say is the crime scene. All the bulletin boards are redecorated but the last one on the right side. When you zoom in you can see it’s the same image. Then look at the hallway pic that is cluttered​ and that board is up close and you see it’s a tree that matches the blurred boards in both the other photos. I do agree with you that the photos of the cluttered hallway had to be after the shooting. I really don’t know what to think about everything. I hate it for the families if it did happen and I’m scarred for America if it’s a hoax.

Look at the photos the kids first 100 days, then the one you say is the crime scene.

This is not some outrageous, baseless claim that I am personally making; it is a crime scene photo. There is zero evidence that it is anything but. There are magazines in the lobby area from December of 2012, so the idea that they were taken any time prior to that – especially years earlier – is absolutely bonkers.

All the bulletin boards are redecorated but the last one on the right side. When you zoom in you can see it’s the same image.

This is false. While there certainly is a tree on that particular board in February of 2011 (during the “First 100 Days” celebration) as well as in December of 2012 (in the crime scene photos), they are decorated differently. In many of the crime scene photos (I used one of Walker’s in my example below), you can see that snow has been added to the tree, very likely as part of their December holiday decorations (many of which can be seen in the other crime scene photos, and are documented here). However, in the “First 100 Days” photo, taken back in 2011, there is no snow anywhere on the board. So they are not the same. Take a look:

The photo on the left is from the “100 Days” album. I cropped it, zoomed in on the board 500%, and did some color correction to brighten it up, etc. It is unfortunately still not very clear, but it’s the best I could do. The photo on the right is from Walker’s crime scene photos. I can’t remember which page I snagged it from. But even with the generally poor quality of the photo on the left, they are clearly different. At the very least, there is no snow – no white patches – anywhere in 2011 (or “100 Days”) photo. Other differences are speculative, based on the poor quality of the photo. For instance, it looks to me as if there are a number of red areas in the “100 Days” photo. Since it’s February, they could be hearts. I don’t know for sure; they may simply be photographic anomalies. I’m also not entirely convinced that it’s even the same tree as they look like they could be shaped a bit differently, but perspective and photo quality make this a tough call.

Even if the trees were exactly the same (and they’re not), I’m not sure what the point – if any – would be. The rest of the boards have still changed, and this is just a tree inscribed with some platitudes (“Respect”, “Caring”, “Responsibility”, etc). Why can’t that remain in place for ten months? How often are elementary schools supposed to change every last deocration, lest they be accused of secretly being closed?

I really don’t know what to think about everything.

The evidence – the actual evidence – can only lead you to one conclusion.

The victims would have been in Kindergarten at the time these photos were taken, and many of them simply do not feature the Kindergarten class. One of the reasons for that is the fact that Kindergarten was broken up into separate AM and PM classes. So the victims would have only spent half the day at the school, and that would not have presented them with as many opportunities to participate in these activities.

That said, I’m pretty certain that some of the victims can be seen in the first photo of Patricia Polacco’s visit. I’m almost positive that’s Catherine Hubbard’s distinctive hair seen on the right.

And I see Chase is also there with the blond hair and glasses. Also , I would like to see a 2012/13 yearbook, especially since the class picture provided by Katie Curric as well as Ben Wheeler ‘s family for room 8 is incredibly blurry. It has no ID placard in the front center as all school class pictures do , and the teacher ‘s face on the right is not visible above the chin . I used to work at the elementary school for Michael Phelps for 5 years when he was there , and extra yearbooks (for his picture ) could be ordered from the yearbook company that had the contract for that school . These are accessible online . I haven’t tried yet for SHES because the info has probably been blocked because of the tragedy there or because of the parents’ request .

Not every school class picture has a placard front and center. If you use Google Images and search for class photos, even elementary school class photos, you’ll see that there are plenty where there is no placard at all. There is no set of rules that schools must follow when taking class photos: some are taken inside, some are outside, some have a placard, some don’t, some are “silly”, some are serious, etc.

Also, in regards to yearbook availability, it’s mentioned in an issue of the Sandy Hook Connection that SHES uses Jostens for their yearbooks, and they are printed in limited quantities. I assume this is true for all of Newtown Public Schools. This makes sense as it would keep costs down for everyone. As for whether or not you can order copies directly from Jostens, they include the following on their website, under “Help & Customer Care”:

Jostens prints millions of yearbooks each year, therefore we are unable to keep inventories of backdated yearbooks in stock. And since published yearbooks are the property of the schools, the decision of whether or not to supply or approve reprinting of backdated yearbooks is up to the individual school.

So, in this case, extra yearbooks – especially yearbooks that are now over five years old – cannot be ordered directly from the yearbook company. And this is true for any school using Jostens to publish their yearbooks, not just Sandy Hook Elementary.

There’s also the matter of whether or not the 2012/2013 yearbook would have even been available yet, which I don’t believe it would have. Remember that the shooting took place only a few months into the school year, which would have been awfully early to not only complete the contents of the yearbook, but to have them printed and released.

One final thought on the subject: it should be fairly obvious to anyone who pokes around a bit that I approve nearly every comment I receive here, positive or negative. As long as this site has existed, I think I have removed or denied maybe less than half a dozen comments, tops. And I think that’s a generous estimate. That said, I am no longer approving any requests for Sandy Hook yearbooks. Anything that can be said about the subject has already been said, and I refuse to let this site turn into some sort of macabre eBay for those obsessed with the shooting. Those that say yearbooks post 2008 will quiet deniers are either hilarious naive or lying through their teeth, and the only thing a yearbook will do is expose more students to harassment. So I’ll have no part in it.

After looking and reading all of it, including all the comments, I’m afraid I came away with not a single compelling point or photo. Soto in a photo, someplace and sometime, but why none of the victims or parents we’ve seen so much of?

The most mystifying part of this entire event is the lack of compelling evidence. Insults, assertions, emotion. The patterns we see with propaganda and since the event (whatever it was) in Newtown, a pattern we’ve seen repeated over and over and over. Emotion, ridicule, shame, assertions and any questions, regardless of how basic, are met with scorn.

Ridicule is probably the least compelling argument technique, sadly, it’s the most effective.

You read every word of all sixty-nine entries, all five hundred and fifty-nine approved comments, looked at all six hundred fifty-two photos, and you couldn’t find a single “compelling” anything? Right. So what, pray tell, do you personally believe to be “compelling”? I’d certainly love to see an example.

Soto in a photo, someplace and sometime

She’s seen in two photos, and that “someplace” is the school, and that “sometime” would be either Monday, January 23rd, 2012, or February 15, 2011, depending on the photo.

why none of the victims or parents we’ve seen so much of

Very few of them feature the kindergartners, which is the class that the victims would have been in at this time. But you can see Catherine Hubbard (and possibly some of her classmates) in the Patricia Polacco photos as well as Jesse Lewis in one of the Veterans Day photos. So I’m not sure what you’re talking about. As for the parents, there are maybe a handful of photos total that feature any parents, and with hundreds and hundreds of students, the odds are against you here.

The most mystifying part of this entire event is the lack of compelling evidence.

Thousands of crime scene photos, dozens of witness reports as well as hundreds of other official documents included in the final report, death certificates (a copy of which you yourself can order), etc. The list goes on and on. Again, what do you consider “compelling”? I’m honestly dying to know at this point.

Emotion, ridicule, shame, assertions and any questions, regardless of how basic, are met with scorn.

Ask a question that has been answered, and was likely answered years ago, and you fully deserve any and all scorn.

This is really interesting! I had the same thought as many of the others who already posted: What about the yearbook! Putting that query into Bing brought me here.
As of right now, I have two daughters in Elementary school. I’ve only recently really done any research into Sandy Hook, having only recently even learning there was a conspiracy. (I live in Michigan, so stuff that happens in other States hold little interest for me normally)
Since I learned about the conspiracy, I’ve specifically avoided Infowars videos and concentrated on videos that highlight newscasts and interviews specifically.
I find them incredibly compelling.
There are videos that go through the “Find a person” databases and highlight connections to aliases and other home locations that are really interesting.
Now, that all being said, I have no idea what story is correct.
Listening to the newscasters that made videos the day it happened, there was mass confusion. It seemed to me that the confusion was out of place for a school that had only recently gone through specific training not to mention the other school that was supposed to have a training the very same day and time. Looking at the chopper video and watching people mill about and go in and out of the firehouse was just confusing beyond all logic.
Seeing one of the parents “get into character” before a news conference doesn’t really help his case either.
Then there’s a guy who posted a video showing photos of the kids and some of the adults as older than they should be.
The kids who sand with Alicia Keyes looking like older versions of some of the kids who were killed.
One of the most compelling to me was the lack of Gunshot Holes in the building. I bring this up because if there’s anything that the news organizations love to feature is gunshot holes and other damage.
Now, I admit that I’m not completely convinced that this whole thing is a hoax or false flag, but I’m also not convinced that it’s real.
If there is any link to a compelling video of The Lanza father giving an interview, or better yet, Ryan Lanza, please share it.
One last thing, I noticed that the media keeps using the same photos over and over again of both Adam Lanza and all the children who were killed. Why didn’t they use more current photos like the yearbook photos? That question is what brought me down this rabbit hole in the first place.
Anyway, I definitely like what you’ve done with this website. Your attention to detail is excellent and while I do not think that negative language is ever appropriate, I applaud your continued interest in defending the town and school.

I’ve only recently really done any research into Sandy Hook, having only recently even learning there was a conspiracy.

Spoiler: there was no conspiracy. Still isn’t. Adam Lanza, acting alone, murdered his mother at home before driving to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he slaughtered twenty children and six adults before taking his own life. There is a mountain of evidence – actual evidence – to support this. It’s a terrible tragedy, and it happened.

Since I learned about the conspiracy, I’ve specifically avoided Infowars videos and concentrated on videos that highlight newscasts and interviews specifically.

There are key words and phrases spread throughout your comment that make me a bit suspicious of this claim as some of it appears to be ripped directly from popular hoaxer sources. Maybe not Infowars specifically, but different, equally worthless purveyors of the same kind of pap, which is really where InfoWars gets their information from anyway.

There are videos that go through the “Find a person” databases and highlight connections to aliases and other home locations that are really interesting.

Now that certainly doesn’t sound like something you saw on a newscast. Still, I have no idea which video or videos you’re referring to, so I can’t offer you any rational explanation. There’s nothing here for me to work with.

Now, that all being said, I have no idea what story is correct.

The one where Adam Lanza murdered twenty-seven people. Follow the evidence, not spooky YouTube videos.

Listening to the newscasters that made videos the day it happened, there was mass confusion.

Of course there was. Why wouldn’t there be? Someone shot up an elementary school, and reports were flooding in before police even secured the building. What about that wouldn’t breed chaos?

I’d challenge you to show me just one breaking news situation that didn’t result in at least some misinformation. I don’t think that you can, and that’s because it’s a well-known – though still unfortunate – side effect of the twenty-four hour news cycle, not evidence of any kind of conspiracy. Entire books have been written about the subject. “No Time To Think” is one of them. Or, if you don’t feel like reading an entire book on it, just do a Google search on it and take a quick look at the results. For example, When I search for “media accuracy breaking events”, the top result is an article titled “When news breaks, scanners and social media can create a cloud of errors for news outlets”. Go to the second page and you’ll see an article from the Columbia Journalism Review titled “Fast and wrong beats slow and right”. Etc.

It seemed to me that the confusion was out of place for a school that had only recently gone through specific training not to mention the other school that was supposed to have a training the very same day and time.

I’m having a hard time following you here. Who was confused? It seemed like you were talking about the media earlier, but now it sounds as if you’re talking about the school itself. Why would chaos and confusion be “out of place” in an active shooter situation? If anything, wouldn’t confusion be much more “out of place” in a pre-planned, staged event, full of well-prepared participants? Didn’t they allegedly have a script to work from? If so, how did they fuck it up so badly? How does that make any sense?

Furthermore, are you claiming that there had been an active shooter drill at Sandy Hook shortly before the shooting? Because I’m pretty, pretty positive that’s not at all true. I also don’t know which “other school” or training you’re speaking of, though I suspect you’re referring to FEMA’s “Planning for the Needs of Children in Disasters”, a course on natural disaster preparedness that was held at St. Vincent’s Medical Center, a hospital roughly a half hour away from Sandy Hook. If that’s not it, then I’m going to need better information.

Looking at the chopper video and watching people mill about and go in and out of the firehouse was just confusing beyond all logic.

Why is that confusing? People went into the firehouse to meet up with loved ones and then out of the firehouse for a number of reasons (they couldn’t stay in there forever). What else are people supposed to do while waiting? Is this truly suspicious to you, or were you simply told that this was suspicious? Were you also duped by the fraudulent “walking in circles” video?

Seeing one of the parents “get into character” before a news conference doesn’t really help his case either.

Now this idea is of course pure conspiracy schlock. What conspiracy kooks call “getting into character”, other, maybe more rational people may call “composing yourself”, or “gathering your thoughts”, etc. What did Robbie Parker – and I can only assume you’re talking about Robbie Parker – chuckle at before speaking? I really have no clue. Maybe he wasn’t reacting to anything anyone said and it was simply nerves. Again, I don’t know. What I do know is that until a real, trained psychologist tells me that Mr. Parker’s reaction is 100% out of the realm of possibility for someone who had recently lost a child, I’m not going to judge him, because I know that there isn’t one standard, expected reaction to this kind of grief or loss.

Besides, if he truly needed to “get into character”, why did he choose to do it after exiting the building? Why not do it out of view of the cameras? And after the cameras mistakenly captured the moment, why didn’t they perform another take, or simply edit the video? After all, we’re told all of the time that the media is complicit in this alleged hoax, yet they not only filmed and later aired this incriminating footage, but have kept it alive on their sites for nearly six years now. Again, what sense does any of this make?

Then there’s a guy who posted a video showing photos of the kids and some of the adults as older than they should be.

I have no idea what you’re referring to here. Again, if you’d like me to address it, I’ll need specific information and sources.

The kids who sand with Alicia Keyes looking like older versions of some of the kids who were killed.

First of all, it was Jennifer Hudson, not Alicia Keys. This wouldn’t be the first time she’s been mis-identified, either: according to James Fetzer’s putrid book, she’s Beyonce. If these self-professed researchers can’t even get that easily-obtained information correct, how can anyone reasonably trust them to get anything right? But I digress.

Secondly, I’m not sure what’s more absurd: the claim that some of the Sandy Hook victims – now magically fourth graders – were trotted out in front of the world, on what is arguably professional sport’s biggest stage, to sing a tribute to themselves just two months after the shooting or the fact that I need to continually explain to people just how ludicrous the whole idea is.

For whatever reason, conspiracy theorists really, really wanted to make the Super Bowl thing happen. I guess it made for great YouTube clickbait. But there was one very big problem, and that is that the children who performed with the school choir, beyond bearing what is maybe only a passing resemblance to the victims, were also 3-4 years older than a first grader would have been in February of 2013. But again, they really wanted this one to work, so they took an already ridiculous claim and just launched it into the stratosphere by now alleging that the victims were actually older than we had been told, and any photos of happy six and seven year-olds released by the families must have been taken in 2008-2009. But beyond being completely outrageous, this is also impossible as a number of those photos contain objects that would have been unavailable to a six or seven year-old in 2008-2009. I’ve posted an example here. Additionally, some of the victims’ older siblings performed as part of the choir. Caroline Previdi’s older brother, Walker, for example. There are photos of a clearly five-to-six year-old Caroline posing with the eight-to-nine year-old Walker. However, at the Super Bowl, Walker doesn’t appear to have aged much, if at all, while Caroline – or the girl alleged to be Caroline – has somehow aged three-to-four years in the span of a couple of months. This is, again, totally impossible.

On top of all of this, I asked facial feature expert Joelle Steele, author of the book “Face To Face: Analysis And Comparison Of Facial Features To Authenticate Identities Of People In Photographs”, to weigh in on this nonsense. Not surprisingly, after being provided with high-quality photographs of one of the girls who performed with the choir and the Sandy Hook victim she is alleged to be, she stated that there was no possible way they were the same person, confirming what most of us already knew. You can view my correspondence with Joelle here.

One of the most compelling to me was the lack of Gunshot Holes in the building.

The crime scene photos are full of photos of bullet holes. I found these “non-existent” bullet holes throughout the Walkley’s crime scene photos, specifically on pages 54-61, 404-431, 448-454, 513, 622-624, 626-630.

I bring this up because if there’s anything that the news organizations love to feature is gunshot holes and other damage.

The photos mentioned above were not available to anyone until almost a year after the shooting, and the media obviously was not allowed inside of the school, so where do you expect these photos to come from? They simply did not have access to them. Once they were released to the public, these photos were all over the news. Again, Google “sandy hook crime scene photos” and you’ll see results from just about every mainstream news source on the planet. They were published everywhere because, like you said, they always feature this stuff. And they did, as soon as they could.

If the entire thing were faked, what would have stopped anyone involved from shooting up this allegedly empty school, taking a number of dramatic photos and video showing the many holes in the walls, and sending them off to the media immediately after the shooting? What could be easier to fake than a bunch of bullet holes?

If there is any link to a compelling video of The Lanza father giving an interview, or better yet, Ryan Lanza, please share it.

One last thing, I noticed that the media keeps using the same photos over and over again of both Adam Lanza and all the children who were killed. Why didn’t they use more current photos like the yearbook photos?

In many cases, the photos used by the media were the most recent photos. And in other cases, I have to imagine that parents chose to use their favorite photos of their children, rather than the most recent one. It’s up to them which photos they choose to share with the world, if any. That’s not up to us to decide.

As far as any yearbooks go, no one would have had the yearbooks from the 2012-2013 school year as they weren’t released yet. Yearbooks are released at the end of the school year, usually sometime around March or April. Some parents released the previous year’s yearbook photos. I know that I’ve seen yearbook photos of a number of victims, though those would have been from the 2011-2012 school year.

That question is what brought me down this rabbit hole in the first place.

Anyone can order a certified copy of the victims’ death certificates from the town of Newtown. The victims are also listed in the Social Security Death Index. These two things alone should be compelling to anyone than a lack of photos from a yearbook that had yet to be released.

Anyway, I definitely like what you’ve done with this website. Your attention to detail is excellent and while I do not think that negative language is ever appropriate, I applaud your continued interest in defending the town and school.

Thank you. If you haven’t already, please browse the rest of the site. I’ve tried to address a lot of your concerns here in my reply, but some of the other entries on the site go into much greater detail and include photos, sources, etc.

They said Chalk Hill Middle School was almost an exact replica of Sandy Hook Elementary.

No, “they” said that they attempted to recreate Sandy Hook – “down to crayons on the desk” – at Chalk Hill shortly before the children moved there in January of 2013, in an effort to make them feel more at home at their new, albeit temporary school. So if you’re suggesting that, back in 1969 (or really any time before the shooting), the town of Monroe decided to model one of their middle schools after another district’s elementary school, that idea has no basis in reality.

Why does door to the right of the lobby, behind the famous Noah Pozner photo, have blue trim – and the official photo of the lobby 12/14/12 have brown?

What is the implication here? That the “famous” Noah Pozner photo was actually taken at Chalk Hill, rather than Sandy Hook? And your evidence for that is what? This near-recreation of Sandy Hook, which took place after the shooting?

It’s obvious that the lobby seen in the Pozner photo is the same one shown throughout the crime scene photos, from the floor to the furniture to – yes – the blue door frames. Just look at the first forty or so pages of Walkley’s scene photos and there can be no question that the frames and trim are all blue, the exact same color seen in Noah’s photo. Look… here’s that same doorway, lit up from the camera’s flash, from page 33 of Walkey’s photos:

It’s blue. Not brown. Or maybe you’re colorblind. I don’t know.

Of course I have no idea what you mean by the “official” photo of the lobby. Care to elaborate?

Comment policy: Comments from previously unapproved guests will remain in moderation until I manually approve them. Honest questions and reasonable comments from all types of folks are encouraged and allowed but will often remain in moderation until I can properly reply to them, which may occasionally take a little while. Contrary to what some of you think, losing your patience during this time and leaving another comment in which you insult me won't do much to speed up that process.

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